Hey! I’m Ben and I hand-drew all these maps!

I’d been unkowingly hand drawing topographic lines for years. In class, work meetings or just to pass the time…. But they were just free flowing imagined landscapes that felt like creating worlds.

One day I said I’m going to draw a REAL PLACE!!! And since I live in Cache Valley, UT, I said I may as well start with that one. So I projected the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map onto the wall where I taped a poster paper. Then I traced each section by section to make sure it’s exactly right. Then I scanned the hand drawn papers and stitched them together into a single image. What you see is a 20+ hours of work per map and a lot of energy, introspection and appreciation for the awesome geological processes that create the world.

I really love the way topographic maps represent a 3d image on a 2d landscape. It’s just a flat surface but you can feel the depth in the images. I could go on about topo maps for ages… but I’ll slow down.

I live in Logan, UT and I’m happy to be able to enjoy the canyons, marshes and mountains all around me. Perfect for drawing, too.

Let me know if you’re interested in a map!

-Ben N.